Udacity

Udacity is a for-profit educational organization founded by Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens, and Mike Sokolsky offering massive open online courses (MOOCs).[3] According to Thrun, the origin of the name Udacity comes from the company’s desire to be “audacious for you, the student”.[4][5] While it originally focused on offering university-style courses, it now focuses more on vocational courses for professionals.

History

Udacity is the outgrowth of free computer science classes offered in 2011 through Stanford University.[6] Thrun has stated he hopes half a million students will enroll, after an enrollment of 160,000 students in the predecessor course at Stanford, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence,[7] and 90,000 students had enrolled in the initial two classes as of March 2012.[8][9] Udacity was announced at the 2012 Digital Life Design conference.[10] Udacity is funded by venture capital firm, Charles River Ventures, and $200,000 of Thrun’s personal money.[3] In October 2012 the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led the investment of another $15 million in Udacity.[11] In November 2013, Thrun announced in a Fast Company article that Udacity had a “lousy product” and that the service was pivoting to focus more on vocational courses for professionals[12] and “nanodegrees.”[13] As of 28 April 2014, Udacity has 1.6 million users in 12 full courses and 26 free courseware.

In 2014, the Georgia Institute of Technology launched the first “massive online open degree” in computer science by partnering with Udacity and AT&T; a complete master’s degree through that program costs students $7,000.

Sebastian Thrun

Sebastian Thrun (born May 14, 1967) is an educator, programmer, robotics developer and computer scientist from Germany. He is CEO and cofounder of Udacity. He was a Google VP and Fellow, and a Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. At Google, he founded Google X. He is currently also an Adjunct Professor at Georgia Tech.

Thrun led development of the robotic vehicle Stanley[6] which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, and which has since been placed on exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. His team also developed a vehicle called Junior,[7] which placed second at the DARPA Grand Challenge (2007). Thrun led the development of the Google self-driving car.

Thrun is also known for his work on probabilistic algorithms for robotics with applications including robotic mapping.[9] In recognition of his contributions, and at age 39, Thrun was elected into the National Academy of Engineering and also into the Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2007. In 2011, Thrun received the Max-Planck-Research Award.[10] and the inaugural AAAI Ed Feigenbaum Prize. Fast Company selected Thrun as the fifth most creative person in the business world.[11] The Guardian recognized Thrun as one of 20 “fighters for internet freedom”.